Scrapyard shoot - Alexis

[Manfred M]

I just got back from a photo shoot in one of the more unusual places, an automobile scrap yard. The rain interrupted the shoot a couple of times, but in general the light was nice and diffuse. In addition to old tires and automobiles, the place was quite overgrown, so mosquitoes, ticks and giant hogweed were some of the site hazards.

The Boneyard is located in Cardinal, Canada. https://www.facebook.com/The-Boneyard-351754131520734/

This shot of Alexis is the only one I have processed so far.

[FootLoose]

The tyres make a good background but the material directly behind her is a bit distracting. I wonder if it were possible for you to move to the right and shoot from a position that had the background comprised only of tyres? The pile on the models right seem to be higher than her head.

[Shadowman]

The tyres make a good background but the material directly behind her is a bit distracting. I wonder if it were possible for you to move to the right and shoot from a position that had the background comprised only of tyres? The pile on the models right seem to be higher than her head.

There are other elements within this shot?

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, even has a bit of mystery/assumed danger as there could be quite a few things hiding in those tires.

[FootLoose]

There are other elements within this shot?

?????

[Manfred M]

The tyres make a good background but the material directly behind her is a bit distracting. I wonder if it were possible for you to move to the right and shoot from a position that had the background comprised only of tyres? The pile on the models right seem to be higher than her head.

Unfortunately shooting from the right put the model's face into shadow and the results would not be good; I did do some test shots from the right. I might burn the background down a bit.

[FootLoose]

Fair enough.

If you cloned out the pipes it might reduce the complexity and make the b/g seem less cluttered, too.

[shreds]

I agree.

The randomness of the tyres could be used to advantage to clone out the distracting elements perhaps?

Just tried a quick edit and it seems to work well to create a montage of tyre shapes behind her.

[Dave A]

Now this is an unusual location/background and works wonderfully for me. I agree about the upper lighter area but still a very imaginative concept.

Dave

[Manfred M]

Thanks everyone. Now that I've had a chance to recover from spending around 4 hours of shooting and another couple of hours of getting to and from the shoot, I sat down and did a more clear-headed assessment of the images.

How dose this version work?

[Manfred M]

Adding a few more of Alexis

1.





2.





3.





4.

[FootLoose]

Thanks everyone. Now that I've had a chance to recover from spending around 4 hours of shooting and another couple of hours of getting to and from the shoot, I sat down and did a more clear-headed assessment of the images.

How dose this version work?

Much better, Manfred.


In the second set:
#1 the orange object in the background is a bit of any eye-magnet.

#2. That's an unfortunate pose. She seems to be straining to hold that position as her belly fat is forcing over the top of the pants. And while the camo.s match the bonnet of the wreck, they disguise the lines of her legs making her thigh seem much larger than it is.

#3. Nice use of diagonal composition

#4. The most successful imho as it has a good balance between background and foreground objects.


Manfred, did you ask the model to look directly at the camera in every shot? Some variation would be nice.

[Manfred M]

Much better, Manfred.


In the second set:
#1 the orange object in the background is a bit of any eye-magnet.

#2. That's an unfortunate pose. She seems to be straining to hold that position as her belly fat is forcing over the top of the pants. And while the camo.s match the bonnet of the wreck, they disguise the lines of her legs making her thigh seem much larger than it is.

#3. Nice use of diagonal composition

#4. The most successful imho as it has a good balance between background and foreground objects.


Manfred, did you ask the model to look directly at the camera in every shot? Some variation would be nice.

Unfortunately, this was a group shoot and had a number of new shooters who did not follow the protocol laid out by the organizer i.e.one shooter at a time, move out of the way when you've finished shooting, etc. This was definitely not fair to the models and the other photographers.

The experience level of the models was also quite variable as you have noticed with Alexis. She has the same look in all the images. So far as I can tell, Cristiana (I haven't posted images of her yet) was the most experienced model at the shoot whereas she is one of the least experienced models I normal shoot with. She took direction on posing fairly well, but seemed to have just one "shooting look". I got a few other expressions, but the poses did not work as well as in these.

My main purpose to participate at this shoot was for me to try a shooting in this setting and environment, so I quite happy with the learning exercise. In general, I'm happy with the images I came back with, given the shooting conditions.